Dell Dimension 4600i

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I have a dell dimension 4600i computer. The problem is when i go to
boot up the option screen for safe mode, last known good configuration
etc. comes up when I attempt to choose any one of those options the
system hangs.

I thought that maybe the hard drive was failing so I went into the
bios, and turned the sata hard drive to off and then install an ide
hard drive which contained an operating system on it and turned it on.

The bios detected the make, model and size of this hard drive but I
still can't access the operating system on it. When I reboot I keep
getting the message to F1 Try Reboot OR F2 Setup Utility.

When I switch back to the sata hard drive I put it on Auto and it still
won't detect it.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.